Here’s the long story short: it’s an ancient practice in which one swishes vegetable-based oil (olive, sunflower, safflower, coconut etc) in one’s mouth for 20 minutes and then spits it out. Then you gargle with salt water and brush your teeth.

Well, why would anyone ever want to do that?

Depends on who you ask.

I am typically a skeptic of everything, even pharmaceutical products, so color me skeptical about oil pulling — or at least, the benefits most health nuts are ascribing to it. I’ve seen on the internet claims of everything from fighting gun disease to curing acne to remediation arthritis pain. I do not know if any of that is true — no studies back it up, that I know of. There’s lots of testimonial out there that says it works, but not a lot of scientific studies.

And so, you won’t see me saying it heals the entire body and soul.

I did, however, hear that it whitens teeth when done with coconut oil.

And THAT sounded realistic and believable.

So we bought some coconut oil, and are giving it a try.

We are now like three days in, and here’s what I do/think:

I swish for 20 minutes before bed (we watch an episode of Community and swish away) and then in the morning during my getting ready routine.

I use unrefined coconut oil that’s been expeller-pressed.

When I do it, afterward my teeth feel so smooth and shiny that it cannot be understated. No, they are not merely coated in oil. I have found that the gritty feeling that teeth accrue after a day of being teeth is rinsed away and gone after I swish. Doing this before bed, when I wake up in the morning my mouth doesn’t feel ratchet like it usually does either – it feels like it would had I never gone to sleep at all. So for what it’s worth, it cleans your teeth for sure. I don’t know that my teeth have ever been so clean.

As for whitening — it’s only been three days but I do believe I am seeing some results. I’ll keep you posted.

Like I said, you’ll not see me touting this practice as a miracle cure — I’m just here for whiter teeth and thought I would give it a whirl. You can consult with google if you want more info on its other rumored benefits; I’m not going to spout them like some deranged yogi. For all I know, it may do everything everyone suggests and more! And that would be awesome, because for 9 bucks a jar, you could basically fix most ailments.

But in the case that it doesn’t, just remember I didn’t lead you astray or espouse a weird theory.